The document discusses the benefits of software-defined storage over traditional storage approaches. It argues that software-defined storage uses standard hardware and open source software, providing flexibility, scalability, and lower costs compared to proprietary appliances or public cloud storage. It also describes Red Hat's portfolio of software-defined storage solutions, including Ceph and Gluster, which leverage open source technologies to power a variety of enterprise workloads.

1. WHY SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE
MATTERS
Ross Turk
Red Hat
October 2016

2. 2
THE DATA STORAGE SHORTFALL
Data stores are growing exponentially,
while IT budgets are not
HDDs are becoming more dense,
but $/GB decline is slowing
Software and hardware advances are
needed to close the gap
GROWTH OF DATA
IT STORAGE
BUDGETS
20202010

3. 3
APPLIANCES AREN’T ENOUGH
Complexity hidden from end
users, along with flexibility
Vendor lock-in leads to pricing
premium
Price premium over constituent
components is difficult to sustain
THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO STORAGE
ADMIN
S
MANAGEMENT INTERFACE
DATA
NFS/SMB/ISCSI
ENDPOINTS
STANDARD SERVERS AND MEDIA
PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE

4. 4
PUBLIC CLOUD STORAGE ISN’T ENOUGH
Complexity still hidden from end
users, pay-as-you-go pricing
Fastest-growing segment of IT
storage budgets
Mostly built with proprietary software
CONVENIENT BUT LIMITED
ADMIN
S
MANAGEMENT INTERFACE
DATA
CLOUD STORAGE APIS
STANDARD SERVERS AND MEDIA
LINUX + PROPRIETARY
SOFTWARE

5. 5
THE INDUSTRY IS RETHINKING STORAGE
38% of IT decision
makers report
inadequate storage
capabilities as one
of their top three
weekly pain points
70% of IT decision
makers admit that
their organization’s
current storage can’t
cope with emerging
workloads
98% of IT decision
makers believe a
more agile storage
solution could
benefit their
organization
Vanson Bourne Ltd: Storage limitations, frustrations, and coping with future needs, Red Hat Storage research results, June 2016

6. 6
FLEXIBILITY IS CRUCIAL

7. 7
STORAGE IS EVOLVING
OPEN, SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE
Standardized, unified, open platforms
Standard Computers
and Disks
Ceph Gluster +++
Control Plane (API, GUI)
Custom GUI
Proprietary Hardware
Proprietary
Software
Custom GUI
Proprietary Hardware
Proprietary
Software
USER USER USER
ADMIN ADMIN ADMIN
Custom GUI
Proprietary Hardware
Proprietary
Software
USER ADMIN
Standard
Hardware
OpenSource
Software
TRADITIONAL STORAGE
Complex proprietary silos

8. WHAT IS SOFTWARE-DEFINED
STORAGE?

9. 9
WHAT IS SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE?
SERVER-BASED CENTRALIZED CONTROL OPEN ECOSYSTEM

10. 10
SERVER-BASED STORAGE
The use of software and standard hardware to provide services traditionally provided by
single-purpose storage appliances (similar to server virtualization, which uses software to
emulate servers), providing increased agility and efficiency
Appliance
USER
Appliance
USER
Appliance
USER
Distributed Cluster of Services
USER USER USER

11. 11
VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SCALES BETTER
Storage Appliance
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + +
COMPUTE
NODE
COMPUTE
NODE
STORAGE
NODE
+

12. 12
SAN/NAS IS ON THE DECLINE
• Storage capacity shipped inside servers has
grown since 2010, and is now the majority
• Capacity shipped in SAN/NAS is declining,
reflecting the use of server-based storage
technologies by web-scale firms
Changing workloads drive the need for
flexible, economical server-based storage.
WW DEPLOYED CAPACITY (TB)
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
2016
EXTERNAL CAPACITY INTERNAL CAPACITY

13. 13
WHAT IS SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE?
CENTRALIZED CONTROLSERVER-BASED OPEN ECOSYSTEM

14. 14
STORAGE ORCHESTRATION
The ability to provision, grow, shrink, and decommission storage resources on-demand
and programmatically, providing increased control and integration of storage into a
software-defined data center
Web Console API Command Line
A browser interface designed
for
managing distributed storage
A full API for automation and
integration with outside
systems
A robust, scriptable command-line
interface for expert operators
Full life cycle management for distributed, software-defined data services
PROVISION INSTALL CONFIGURE TUNE MONITOR

15. 15
WHAT IS SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE?
OPEN ECOSYSTEMSERVER-BASED CENTRALIZED CONTROL

16. WHY SOFTWARE-DEFINED
STORAGE MATTERS

17. 17
WHY THIS MATTERS
PROPRIETARY
HARDWARE
Common,
off-the-shelf hardware
Lower cost, standardized supply chain

18. 18
INDUSTRY STANDARD HARDWARE
Standardization makes storage more convenient
Customers can build clusters using standard hardware
from existing vendors that’s perfect for their workload.
• Clusters can be performance-optimized, capacity-
optimized, or throughput-optimized
• Need capacity? Add more disks. Too slow? Add more
servers.
• Clusters can become larger or smaller with no downtime

19. 19
WHY THIS MATTERS
PROPRIETARY
HARDWARE
SCALE-UP
ARCHITECTURE
Common,
off-the-shelf hardware
Scale-out
architecture
Lower cost, standardized supply chain
Increased operational flexibility

20. 20
PERFORMANCE THAT SCALES
Performance should scale up as capacity does
Software-defined storage intelligently uses hardware to
provide performance at very large scale.
• Traditional appliances perform better when they are
empty than they do when they are full of disks
• Performance in software-defined storage clusters
improves as clusters get larger, not the other way
around
• Intel, SanDisk, Fujitsu, and Mellanox regularly
contribute performance optimizations
PERFORMANCE

21. 21
WHY THIS MATTERS
PROPRIETARY
HARDWARE
SCALE-UP
ARCHITECTURE
HARDWARE-BASED
INTELLIGENCE
Common,
off-the-shelf hardware
Scale-out
architecture
Software-based
intelligence
Lower cost, standardized supply chain
Increased operational flexibility
More programmability, agility,
and control

22. 22
THE ROBUSTNESS OF SOFTWARE
Software can do things hardware can’t
Storage services based on software are more flexible
than hardware-based implementations
• Can be deployed on bare metal, inside containers,
inside VMs, or in the public cloud
• Can deploy on a single server, or thousands, and can
be upgraded and reconfigured on the fly
• Grows and shrinks programmatically to meet
changing demands

23. 23
WHY THIS MATTERS
PROPRIETARY
HARDWARE
SCALE-UP
ARCHITECTURE
HARDWARE-BASED
INTELLIGENCE
CLOSED DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
Common,
off-the-shelf hardware
Scale-out
architecture
Software-based
intelligence
Open development
process
Lower cost, standardized supply chain
Increased operational flexibility
More programmability, agility,
and control
More flexible, well-integrated
technology

24. 24
• Contributions from Intel, SanDisk, CERN, and Yahoo
• Presenting Ceph Days in cities around the world and
quarterly virtual Ceph Developer Summit events
• Over 11M downloads in the last 12 months
• Increased development velocity, authorship, and
discussion has resulted in rapid feature expansion
OPEN ECOSYSTEMS
97 AUTHORS/MO
2,453 COMMITS/MO
260 POSTERS/MO
33 AUTHORS/MO
97 COMMITS/MO
138 POSTERS/MO

25. 25
DISRUPTION IN THE STORAGE INDUSTRY
PUBLIC CLOUD
STORAGE
TRADITIONAL
APPLIANCES
SOFTWARE-
DEFINED
STORAGE
better
faster
more
less
weaker
limited
better
faster
less
more
stronger
broad
COST EFFICIENCY
PROVISIONING
VENDOR LOCK-IN
SKILL REQUIRED
GOVERNANCE
DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS

27. 27
THE RED HAT STORAGE PORTFOLIO
Gluster
management
Ceph data service Gluster data service
Ceph
management
OPENSOURCE
SOFTWARE
STANDARD
HARDWARE
Share-nothing, scale-out architecture provides
durability and adapts to changing demands
Self-managing and self-healing features
reduce operational overhead
Standards-based interfaces and full APIs
ease integration with applications and
systems
Supported by the experts at Red Hat

28. 28
OVERVIEW: RED HAT GLUSTER STORAGE
• Purpose-built as a scale-out file store with a straightforward
architecture suitable for public, private, and hybrid cloud
• Simple to install and configure, with a minimal hardware
footprint
• Offers mature NFS, SMB and HDFS interfaces for enterprise
use
Intuit uses Red Hat Gluster Storage to provide flexible, cost-
effective storage for its industry-leading financial offerings
Nimble file storage for petabyte-scale workloads
Container-Native Storage
• Persistent storage
• Containerized storage
Enterprise File Sharing
• Media streaming
• Active Archives
Enterprise Virtualization
Rich Media and Archival
CUSTOMER
HIGHLIGHT: INTUIT
TARGETUSECASES

29. 29
OVERVIEW: RED HAT CEPH STORAGE
• Built from the ground up as a next-generation storage system, based
on years of research and suitable for powering infrastructure platforms
• Highly tunable, extensible, and configurable, with policy-based control
and no single point of failure
• Offers mature interfaces for block and object storage for the enterprise
Cisco uses Red Hat Ceph Storage to deliver storage for
next-generation cloud services
Powerful distributed storage for the cloud
and beyond
Cloud Infrastructure
• VM storage with
OpenStack® Cinder,
Glance Keystone, Manila,
and Nova
• Object storage for
tenant apps
Rich Media and Archival
S3-compatible object storage
CUSTOMER
HIGHLIGHT: CISCO
TARGETUSECASES

30. 30
STRENGTH: MASSIVELY DISTRIBUTED DATA

31. TARGET WORKLOAD: OPENSTACK
31
Allows for instantaneous parallel
creation of VMs at massive scale
Integrates easily and tightly with
OpenStack Cinder, Glance, Nova,
Keystone, and Manila
Offers instant backup capabilities
Provides persistent object, file, and
database storage for applications

32. 32
STRENGTH: PETABYTE SCALE

33. TARGET WORKLOAD: OBJECT STORAGE
33
Stores unstructured data at web
scale, using standard hardware
Works with standard object APIs for
a wide range of compatibility
Spans multiple regions with no
single point of failure
Ideal for active archives, big data
archives, and content libraries

34. 34
STRENGTH: DEPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY
HOSTS VIRTUAL
MACHINES
PRIVATE
CLOUD
CONTAINERSPUBLIC
CLOUD
HYBRID
CLOUD

35. TARGET WORKLOAD: CONTAINERS
35
Deploys storage alongside
applications in containers
Lowers TCO by increasing
utilization of resources
Unifies container and storage
orchestration
Allows for rapid adjustments to
compute/storage ratio
CONTAINER
NGINIX
CONTAINER
MASTE
R
Node 2 Node 3
Node 1
Node 4
NGINIX
CONTAINER
POSTGRES
CONTAINER

36. 36
STORAGE AT RED HAT
PHYSICAL VIRTUAL PRIVATE CLOUD CONTAINERS PUBLIC CLOUD